Dance with the Nightingale - Chapter 42 - 41: The Deal

I smile. I know I smile. I just don't know when.“Entropy?” After all, the blood in my veins dried up decades ago, only dust remains.“Ephemera?” My begging longingness—all of my dreams, devoured by void. Left is but an empty shell—hollow inside.“Life?” Paradox.“Death?” Cold, but equal for all. Just like the blood in my heart's arteries and veins— frozen—time immemorial.“Universe?” Its fabric—time and space, wrapped around like some illusion, a grand simulation—just like that dream...faint, but there.“Dream?” I couldn't tell...very...disorderly like chaos, like silhouette in the mist, hard to capture, it's memory very faint.“Home?”“Home?”“Are you there?”...***Reality fiction.

“In a world where the strong climb, the weak are thrown to the depths. I didn’t climb, I was thrown… and I kept falling...until the Abyss stared back.”When the world ended, the tower rose from the earth, and humanity was forced into a game of survival against nightmare-fueled monsters. Machines stopped working and amidst the chaos, Xior Arden, a broken orphan boy with empty eyes was cast into the lowest depths of the Abyss.There, the weak don’t die quickly. They suffered and so he did suffer.But the Abyss chose him.With the power to absorb runes from fallen monsters, evolve his body into higher forms, and steal the essence of the creatures he kills. Xior begins to climb the tower, not as a hero. But as the thing which the Abyss itself fears:A Monarch born in the dark.***Additional Tags: TowerClimbing, Anti-hero, System, Revenge, WeakToStrong, MorallyGreyProtagonist, CunningProtagonist, ArrogantProtagonist***

Xu Yangyi, an 18-year-old high school student, for the reason that his older twin sister eloped with her girlfriend on the wedding day, was forced to be the surrogate bride by his own father. As a result, he became the wife of the man who should have been his brother-in-law.“You’ve gotta look at me carefully. I’m a man.” Xu Yangyi glared at He Jingyan, who was still getting fresh with him though he already knew Xu Yangyi was indeed a man.“Man?” He Jingyan fiddled with Xu Yangyi’s face with his big hand and gave him a sly smile, “You look identical with your sister, so it doesn’t matter!”

Xueyue's life was filled with nothing but unfortunate events. Her mother died giving birth to her, her father abandoned her for another family, her stepsister stole her beloved, and she was framed for a murder she didn't commit.
Sentenced to death by beating, Xueyue thought her horrible life would finally end.